A white LED couples two light emitting materials. The first is a blue light emitting diode made of semiconductor material capable of emitting radiation (i.e. the “initial radiation”) when electric current flows through it. The second is a yellow fluorescent or luminescent wavelength-converting material that absorbs a portion of the initial radiation and emits light (i.e., the “second radiation”) of a wavelength different from the initial radiation. The resultant light is the combination of the second radiation with the unconverted portion of the initial radiation. In a white LED, the diode emits blue light for the initial radiation, and the wavelength-converting material emits yellow light for the second radiation.
One desired resultant radiation in white LED's is untainted white light. There are many different types of white light, e.g. bluish-white, also known as cool-white, and yellowish-white, also known as warm-white. “Pure” white light, i.e. untainted white light, is desired in situations where the equivalent of daylight is needed, such as the flash for an image capturing device. “Pure” white light has been quantified. FIG. 1 is the 1931 CIE (Commission International d'Elchairge) Chromaticity Diagram. The dotted line 110 represents the black body curve. The color of radiation from a black body is dependent only on its temperature. In the lighting industry, it is common to designate a white color with its associated color temperature. Point 100 is “pure,” untainted white light, and its associated color temperature is 6500 Kelvins. This is, incidentally, the reference white for the National Television System Committee. Point 100 is the desired hue for a white light emitting device like an image capturing device.
Most white LED's employ a common yellow phosphor such as Cerium activated Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (YAG:Ce) as the wavelength converting material. To achieve untainted white light with this phosphor, the blue initial radiation typically has a wavelength which falls between 465 and 470 nanometers. If the initial radiation is too greenish-blue (i.e. greater than 470 nm), the resultant white light will be greenish. If the initial radiation is too purplish-blue (i.e. less than 465 nm), the resultant white light will be purplish. Both of these tainted hues of white can be perceived by the human eye, and are known as “impure” whites. These tainted hues have color coordinates that lie distal from the black body curve in FIG. 1. If either of these impure white lights is used in the flash for an image capturing device, the resulting images will also be tainted.
The color of blue light emitted by blue semiconductor material as fabricated by epiaxial semiconductor growth processes typically ranges from 460–480 nm despite having a controlled process. Consequently, only about 25% of the available blue semiconductor material fabricated by this process can be used in diodes for “pure” white LED's. The remaining 75% emits blue light which is either too greenish or too purplish and cannot be used for this purpose. Therefore the production cost of “pure” white LED's is very high.
Thus, there is a need in the industry for a method or apparatus for generating untainted white light from LED's in a more economically feasible manner. The present invention provides a unique, novel solution to this problem.